“Work without love is slavery.” ~ Mother Teresa

If you have a job you don’t love, you’ll know exactly what I mean when I say it can steal your sparkle. You spend your time hoping to survive until 5 o’clock rolls around. Or you’re working for the weekend or your next vacation. You feel dull, bored, and mildly depressed. Of course, you already know that this is no way to live. But what’s to be done about it? If you’re going to avoid a corrugated-style apartment (aka a cardboard box), you need a job.

How to Get Your Sparkle Back When Your Awful Job Has Stolen It

If you’re wrestling with an evil job it’s time to find out how you can get your sparkle back, here are 8 (and a half) tips to help:

1. Set boundaries

Yes, I get it that some jobs do require very long hours. You don’t have to show me your dark circles to prove it. But maybe you have a sense of obligation to the job, or really want a good performance review, or you’re worried about what your co-workers will say – and it’s that, more than a strict requirement, that’s keeping you there.

If there’s room to cut back, do. Let go of the guilt, the responsibility, the fear, or whatever else is stealing your time and keeping you glued to the desk.

2. Get on a mission

Maybe your job feels so terrible because you just don’t care if there’s another whoozi-majig in the world. If that’s the case, you need to find something you believe in. Maybe there’s an aspect of your job that you do care about. Or maybe there’s something out in the world that you’d like to be on a mission to fix, eliminate or create.

When you get behind something you believe in, you get a fire in your belly that will make you glow.

3. Find your passion

When you find that thing that you love to do, the simple act of doing it brings back your sparkle. But if you can figure out how to ‘do’ your passion and get paid – Woah! Now that will really light up your world!

Find a way to incorporate your passion into your current job, or get a new job doing what you love. Easier said than done, I know, but it’s a goal worth working toward.

4. Remember that you’re awesome

When you only get to do “boring” all day long, you begin to feel boring. If watching paint dry is now your idea of a good time, you need to get your sexy back. Go out and do something fun, interesting, exhilarating!

Better yet, do something like that every weekend. Pretty soon you’ll remember that you’re just too awesome for a boring job.

5. Find kindness

Is your office like a scene in “Mean Girls”? Sometimes a job just sucks because people in the office are hateful to one another. The environment becomes toxic. Start to heal by making a point to reach out to kindness wherever you find it in your life.

6. Create a “no bad people” zone

Seriously. You know the ones I mean – people who are constantly negative, who go out of their way to make more work for you, and who wouldn’t complete a task if their life depended on it. That kind of stuff just has no place in your world, nor should it. Make sure that you only invite people into your life that you want to spend time with.

7. Quit!

What a relief that would be, right? Well, maybe for a minute, and then the panic of being unemployed would set in. Instead of abruptly quitting, carefully plan your segue into something you’re more passionate about.

8. Hope is that thing with feathers . . .

Remember that as long as you’re willing to change things, you don’t have to be stuck in this, or any, awful job forever. You can find work you love or create a business based on your passions. If you can keep hope alive, you’ll feel better knowing your boring job isn’t forever.

And a half: This tip is only a half tip because you’ll have to do it at your own risk: Use your downtime. Your boss may expect you to do nothing on company time except work (even if you don’t have enough work to do). Remember that you deserve to have work you love, and there’s something out in the world just waiting for you to do it.

Your loyalty lies with this greater calling.

So use your downtime to explore what this calling might be. (But please, don’t get caught on the Internet stalking your ex. That’s just not pretty.)

What’s stealing your sparkle at work and how to you plan to get it back? You can share your insights by joining the conversation in the comment section below 

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